Radiolab again. This episode is very moving. What happens when people have to ration medical care in extreme situations?

The story focuses first on Sheri Fink’s reporting of “Five Days at Memorial“, then on a public forum in Baltimore, and finally on an person who needed oxygen during a disaster in Haiti.

After Hurricane Katrina hit and the levees broke, at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans there were 5 days of serious trauma because of limited resources. At several points, people had to make difficult choices about whose needs would be given priority. Then discussion started to creep further toward other difficult choices that might have to be made…